This is our Chevy coupe. We took an impromptu road trip in it this weekend. Saturday, around 1pm, B and I were talking about how much we missed my mom and step dad Gary, and how we wished we could see them and hug them. They have been back from South Africa for about a week now, and staying in Idaho Falls with my brother and his family. And although we wanted to be there and see them a week ago, B and I have both been working so much, it's been hard to get away. Around 1pm on Saturday, we decided to stop listening to the excuses and just GO. We were on the road by 3:30 and giving them hugs by 8pm. It was awesome to see them again! They both look so great and have so many stories to tell about this last year of their lives. We got to see so many of the pictures and videos they took, and they are incredible. The mountains, jungles, plains - the zebra's, elephants, lions, - its all everything we imagined Africa to be like and then even more. My mom brought back a pouch of rooiboos tea and when I opened it I smelled Africa and fell in love. They took pictures of huge rain spiders and the townships and children wrapped in blankets. Hearing the story in each picture they took is probably the closest I am going to get to Africa for a while, and that is really okay. I am so glad they had this experience, got to live in such a different part of the world than we are all used to. And as much as I was willing to share them with Africa, I am so glad they are home now.

We came back last night, so it was a short trip - about 24 hours. But all completely worth it. So today B and I are off to work again. This coming Friday I am flying to San Fransisco to run in the Nike Women's Marathon. It is my first marathon and I am beyond excited! I will post all the details about that story later. For now I am going to enjoy a little steamy Bolivian coffee brew before work.
Later.

One by one.......

Today has ended up being a day where I feel like I would have been better off staying in bed. It's nothing really worth talking about in detail - just a long day at work, having to train a new girl, crabby unprofessional people jerking me around, and the feeling that there is never enough money to go around. However, I just visited Lindsey's blog and she had a great idea of making a list of all the things she is rich in (besides financial). Sounds like a great idea to help me get off of my selfish pity-pot of doom. So here I go, counting my blessings/riches, quite literally:

• Well, first off, there's God. And my relationship with Him. It pretty much changes everything.

• And then there is B, of course. He is my best friend and my favorite.

• I have a great job - it's basically part time hours for full time money and doesn't make me want to shoot myself in the foot every time I have to be there. And for me, that is pretty big. I get bored so easily and can't see myself working long term at some company -tethered to a desk, making phone calls or presentations or whatever it is people do at their Very Important, Very Professional jobs. I was basically born to be self employed.

• Um.....I live in a really great house, in a cool part of town and I have enough to eat. Gas in my car. Movies to watch tonight. Dogs to feed.

• I have great, funny, supportive, rock star friends. They know who they are.

• Anthropologie is opening a store here soon! Shallow, but now I can drool on their items in person!

• My mom and step dad made it safely back from South Africa this last week and I get to see them soon! It's been over a year and I can't wait to hear about their adventure and give them both a hug! My mom and I will go to the mall and eat See's chocolates and get tacos. It's our thing and I've missed her so bad.

• I not only have a beautiful house, but an actual studio in my backyard - a place to go and crank up the Pete Yorn, the Patty Griffin, and crank out the art. It's a far cry from the 500 sq foot apartment we rented until late this summer.

• Really, no matter what my issues, I've got it SO MUCH easier than SO many people out there. Kinda sad that I would even bellyache, but I am so human, you know......

Dudes, I feel so much better already. I am going to shake off today, make some mad good Indian food (chana masala anyone?) for dinner and curl up with B on our bed to watch more House. Thanks for listening, yo.

Word to the wise

Green and Black's White Chocolate with Strawberries ice cream?
Not so good.
Really. I know it sounds tempting - with it's beautiful packaging and promise of creamy organinc white chocolately goodness. However, the reality is that it tastes more like plain old vanilla with a few crystallized strawberry crumbs smudged in. Unremarkable.

Lazy Sunday

Today is the only day of the week that I don't have an obligation to be somewhere, doing something. And because of that, today is wonderful. Of course, there are other reasons too..... like knowing that Brant (henceforth to be known as B) and I will spend the evening watching episodes of House and CSI Miami while eating something delicious (I'm thinking pasta with myzithra cheese and fresh bread with olive oil and balsalmic?). I am going to clean our house today, while he is playing football, which might sound like not so much fun, but really, I love the way it feels after the house is clean - then I can curl up with a cup of rooiboos tea and relax even more. (Is that how you spell rooiboos? Not sure). So today is a lovely day.

I have been undecided with the direction of this blog - do I make it mostly business, concentrating on my art and sharing design sources I love? Or do I make it a little more personal, and share other aspects of my life mingled in with the art? It is kind of scary to be more personal. But this is what I have decided: when I look at the blogs I love to read, I find they are the ones in which I feel like I end up knowing the person writing, in some sense. I love the personal details and am bored when the blog is kept at more of an arms length. I am in this for the relationships, and because of that, I have decided to make this my personal blog - with my art thrown in. When or if it becomes beneficial, I will make a

separate website devoted entirely to my art. I feel like this frees me up so much - now the internal editor can relax with the "is this appropriate? Too much sharing? crud. So there. Get ready for my life. Ha ha.

Here are some gratuitous dog and house pictures to get things started. I've been promising my family these for ages. So may I present to you our three dogs Maddie, Lucy, and Emma - and the house we were blessed with this summer.

Today

It is raining outside, and it is simply beautiful.

"I believe I ordered a large latte"

These days I find myself working part-time at a local owned coffee shop. Fairly pleased about this, as it is an answer to the ever needed paycheck dilemma. Also, and perhaps most importantly, it doesn't seem to interfere with the art I am working on. I can work early mornings, get off at noon and be pumped full of caffeine - ready to work Trained Monkey till dark. Like a slave driver. With a whip!
In other news, we had family in town all last week and I got very little done. However I did find a high gloss finishing spray to use on my pendants and I am looking forward to trying it out. Also - while my sister was in town, she came up with two fabulous ideas - 1 - to make a chandelier/light fixture out of the resin disks. 2 - to make a catalogue of all of my products. I am fascinated by both of these ideas and think that my homie should be paid to come up with fantastic ideas - because she is coming up with them ALL THE TIME. She is really just that good.
So. With all that said, that is what I am doing. Catalogues, chandeliers, high gloss finishes, and coffee.

Loving lately: Amy's Organic Indian Food (especially the Mattar Paneer. YUM)
Peppermint Water (thanks, jennifermarathon)
Kombucha

The lowdown

So here's the thing. We've been moving. Into a new house. More on that later.

Why, oh why, when I come here, do all of my funny thoughts, ideas, sentences, fall out of my head and stare at me blankly? Like they were never in my head to begin with? I want to say things here, and I will. Even if I have to grab their grubby little hands and force them to admit they are mine.

I want to tell you(who?) that I have quit my job, quit school, and started a business. Well...the business is at least in the beginning of being started, but still. Amidst all the quiting and starting I am mostly excited. And a little scared. Mostly I think I am scared that I will wake up tomorrow and be like Elsa? What. have.you.done?
But, in the last 2 1/2 weeks of being unemployed I have been in such turmoil about what to be doing with my life at this point, that really, that panic is nothing new to me. I know what to do with that panic.

So. The business details. I want to make stuff and sell it. More specifically, I want to make beautiful things and have people buy those beautiful things. I want to cultivate relationships around those beautiful things. I love art, design,....and long walks by the beach. Seriously though, I have so many ideas floating around of things that I want to design and make, and this business is going to be me doing just that. My first project is jewelery oriented. I am making pendants out of resin. Right now it is a lot of trial and error - but I am mostly overwhelmed by how well it is going, and the peace I feel about going down this road. I'll post pictures as soon as we get settled into the new house and get our Internet going.
So that's it for now.